‘Homeland’ Season Finale Draws Largest Audience Ever for Series

Showtime’s “Homeland” has established itself as the network’s hottest show, surging to a season high as it closed its third season Sunday night.

According to Nielsen estimates that include same-night DVR playback, an average audience of 2.4 million watched the 9 p.m. telecast — up 12% from its year-ago finale (2.285 million), which had been the show’s previous high. Sunday’s season-ender marked the third straight telecast to top 2 million, building on the 2.06 million for the Dec. 2 episode and 2.09 million for the Dec. 9 episode.

Add in the roughly 500,000 who watched the quickie repeat at 11 p.m., and “Homeland” amassed 2.9 million viewers on Sunday, also a high for the show.

Perhaps most impressive about “Homeland’s” third-season surge is that it did it without the help of “Dexter.” The serial killer drama, which ended its eight-season run in September with 2.8 million viewers, had been the CIA thriller’s lead-in for its first two seasons.

According to Showtime, “Homeland” has been averaging 7 million weekly viewers, up 18% from last season.

“Homeland” was followed Sunday by the first-season finale of “Masters of Sex,” which drew roughly 1.2 million viewers for its 10 p.m. telecast and about 1.5 million for the night. “Masters” premiered in September to 998,000 in its regular timeslot and peaked with its penultimate episode of the season (1.234 million).

“Homeland” and “Masters of Sex” will return for their fourth and second seasons, respectively, in 2014.

Yes the 3rd season was really boring compared to the first 2. Could it be because brody wasn’t part of but a few episodes and then they kill him off? Watching this seriously made me think this was the series finale not just a season finale. No idea where they go from here.

Extremely disappointed in the finale and the third season, over all. Saul is happy as a clam with a cheating wife, Carrie is intent on refusing her baby a mother’s care, due to what? (I’m scared!) and jumps at the chance her old dad will raise her, Carrie will work for the man who refused to rescue the father of her baby–nice…
Should have let the show go: I know I have…

I’ll miss Baccarin because she’s not just gorgeous, but she’s one fine actress. I’m sick of Carrie running around bug-eyed as if the world’s about to end. I’m glad Dana’s gone. Hopefully she won’t even return as a guest star. Her character, as well as Baccarin’s, was solely dependent on the relationship with Brody. That’s gone, and so should their roles. That season finale had the feel of series finale. Saul is retired, Carrie’s off to…I forget where, Brody’s supposedly dead, and Jessica and Dana weren’t even in the finale. That should’ve been the finale episode of the entire series for good. This season, at least much of it, was a waste. I’m surprised they got another season. This is nothing compared to The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.

Hoping for a rebound in 2014. This third season was disappointing. The ridiculous opening plot line with Carrie nuts or a traitor, or not, the boring sub-plot of the hapless Dana, Brodie missing for the first episodes, Carrie’s mystery bun in the oven, Brodie on or off heroin, Carrie off her meds again, Brodie a hero after killing the Vice President in season two, and the final obsurdity of basket-case Carrie being promoted and Saul leaving (?) combined to a sub-par follow-up to the first two seasons.

You must to have bumped your head. Playing crazy is the easiest thing for an actor to do. Having layers
is the more difficult and the most attractive to viewers. Carrie and perhaps Dane is thoroughly uncaptivating.

Dreadful ending. The most interesting and compelling character is gone. Carrie has been psychopathically impossible to care about for a long time. She represents everything a healthy man
would avoid in a woman.

Brody is not dead…….. another plot twist….. just not sure who twisted it and who is aware of it…… after all……. we thought Saul did Carrie in…… she played the hospital thing well…. and she was in on it….. so don’t count Brody out…… they will meet up in Turkey… and Saul will come back to work with her there…… or not!!!!! lol